38 Semifinalists and the so-called Big 5 countries - France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK - were anxiously awaiting the results of the draw for the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest which took place in the Düsseldorf Arena today. Hosted by news anchor Judith Rakers - who will also be co-hosting the big event this year - and German national final presenter Sabine Heinrich, the draw now gives way to lots of speculations who will do well in this year's edition of Europe's favourite TV-show.

Lots of TV-people, journalists and fans were nervously awaiting today's event: on which position would their country end up with? The draw is considered important for a good placing in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Spots at the very end of the draw are usually preferred, but during the years, songs with a low starting position have done well, too, so no general statement about the outcome is possible.

Earlier this year, the participating Semi-Finalists were already drawn either in the first or the second half of either Semi-Final 1 or Semi-Final 2. An exception was made for Israel which was automatically set for Semi-Final 2 due to a national holiday.

Today though, it was finally time for all the countries to find out their detailed starting position! The process was supervised by the Executive Supervisor, Jon Ola Sand and Thomas Niedermeier from Digame, the official voting partner.

The draw of Semi-Final 1

In each half of one respective Semi-Final, one country received a wildcard to choose its starting position. The remaining positions were drawn afterwards.

The draw for the first Semi-Final:

Poland (wildcard)

Norway

Albania

Armenia

Turkey

Serbia

Russia

Switzerland

Georgia

Finland

Malta

San Marino

Croatia

Iceland

Hungary

Portugal

Lithuania

Azerbaijan

Greece (wildcard)

The commercial breaks are scheduled to be after the 5th and 14th song.

The draw of Semi-Final 2

The draw for the second Semi-Final brought the following result:

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Austria

The Netherlands

Belgium

Slovakia (wildcard)

Ukraine

Moldova

Sweden

Cyprus

Bulgaria

FYR Macedonia

Israel

Slovenia

Romania

Estonia

Belarus

Latvia (wildcard)

Denmark

Ireland

The commercial breaks are scheduled after the 5th and 14th song.

The automatic Finalists

For the Grand Final, the starting positions of the Big 5 countries (Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and The United Kingdom) were also drawn, with one of them, again, getting a wildcard to freely choose their starting position: